Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck

Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being an avid player of Guild Wars I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book.  Yes, if you're not a player of this game you're not going to get nearly as much out of it.  I think it's a great adventure read for anyone though.

If you are a player, then it is a wonderful taste of things to come.  Every bit of the story hints at what will be in Guild Wars 2.  Character types, background history, and even what monsters wait for us out there are offered up in this text.

Makes me want the game even more!


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Deldrimor Rank Title

 Finally got the Deldrimor Rank finished on Guild Wars. Ended up having to beat the finally boss in Eye of the North on Hard Mode to do it. Luckily Pain Inverter was my friend and the Great Destroyer did a number on himself. I was actually surprised at how fast he went down once I got across the lake of lava and started poking at him,

Cool New Shades

Cool New Shades

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Got my necromancer fancy Norn armor AND some Asuran shades. How cool is she? She's also finished the Canthan protector title and such. There's a new update coming around the corner (Guild Wars turns 4, and I turn 32). It involves pets, so I've been leveling up my Jingle Bear. Tried to make him a Dire Jingle Bear, but came out a Hearty anyway.

Elonian Master Cartographer 99%

Elonian Master Cartographer 99%

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Almost there. This is the last cartographer title that I need to get. The problem is that the last 1% is always the hardest. What saved me on the last two titles were quirks that let me finish up without scraping everything. I don't think I'll get the luxury this time.

Hopefully I can get the house cleaned up, so I can spend some time working on this.

Wintersday and Christmas Goodies

Christmas Clothes (Norn Armor)

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Wintersday has come and gone. I spent some gold and gussied up Satine in some Wintersday clothes. Guess I found some use for all the gold I've been hoarding. Got loads of holiday consumables that hopefully will last me a while. Even got to play with a guildmate and friend for a bit.

Haven't played much this week as the children needed lots of watching. Seems like I barely sat down and it was time to get some sleep. Then I woke up and it started all over again... go figure.

Christmas went well too. The kids had fun and I think my wife enjoyed herself. Good gifts all around. I even got a Nintendo DS with the one game I longed for, Chrono Trigger. I've been playing during my lunch break and life is good.

Guild Wars Is An Experiment That Worked

Here's a reprint of an article talking about the success of Guild Wars in the face of subscription based MMOs. Its the no subscription that got me playing this game, but it is the design philosophy that has kept me playing. It is not a grind-based game. You don't have to play hours on end to find enjoyment in it. Without the subscription you can also stop playing for a while, get a few things done in the real world, and not feel like you've wasted money while not playing.

Thank you ArenaNet!

From Digg:
“Our design goal when creating ‘Guild Wars’ was this: ‘If I’ve got 30 minutes before dinner, will I have fun playing this game?’” says Strain.

read more | digg story

Sunspear Max Title

Managed to get my main Guild Wars character to max rank in the Sunspear Title Track. I've been sitting somewhere in rank 9 for quite a while. Luckily with the great Title Rebalance of Nov 13, 2008 it made it much easier to hammer out those last title points.

The trick is they added sunspear point awards for vanquishing areas in Elona. This is something I was needing to do anyway, so getting the points was a nice bonus. It'll be a while before I can vanquish all areas in any of the campaigns, but it's a start. I'm also trying to finish the cartographer title in Elona as it is the only one I am missing.

I'll probably work on the Kurzick title too as the title rebalance has made that easier and more enjoyable to boot.

Me and the Frog

Me and the Frog

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Okay, so maybe I have a couple screen shots to show off. This is from Halloween 2008. I was up at in the wee hours because one of the kids decided to wake us, and I figure it was time to sneak over to the computer for some Halloween party time!

Not only did I get both festival hats (the "Zombie Paint" mask is in the pic), but saw some celebrities (well to me anyway). The frog in the picture belongs to Gaile Gray the former Community Relations Manager for the game. It's always cool when she shows up.

Guild Wars-ian Update and Thoughts

I've been keeping my notes on Guild Wars progress in Google Notebook lately, when I should post it out here. I know no one cares but at least it would be archived and I'd actually be using this blog for something. Usually I wait until I have some good screen shots to post up, but I think I'll forgo that more in the future.

So what's going on in the Guild Wars universe... well I don't have time to say. Ha! Let's see if I get around to it later.

M.O.X.

M.O.X.

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Got another gift from the Guild Wars folks last night. If you own all the campaigns, you now can get a special Hero. M.O.X. is a giant dervish robot pal. Haven't played with him much yet, but I stuck him in the Hall of Monuments already.

I love it when they add something new to spice things up. Guess I need to unlock some more Dervish skills. Still plenty to do in Guild Wars!

Post Skill Hunter HoM

Post Skill Hunter HoM

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Here's the nebulous statue thing in the back of the Hall of Monuments post getting the Legendary Skill Hunter title. Actually what probably made it more clear is that I've gotten enough titles now to hit the first rank of the Kind of a Big Deal title. Honestly, I never thought I'd get this many titles. Granted I've been playing for over 2 1/2 years now... you'd think I'd accomplish something.

Legendary Skill Hunter

Legendary Skill Hunter

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

I did it! I did it!

Took forever, but I finally managed to capture all the elite skills from a three campaigns of Guild Wars with my necromancer. Now hopefully I can find something else to pour gold into. I'm thinking fancy weapons and armor... though that Guild Hall still needs a little work.

Oh, and just for history purposes... I capped the last skill just about the same time that Michael Phelps won his first gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Beating Guild Wars (Prophecies)... Again

The 3rd anniversary of Guild Wars is just around the corner (and my 31st birthday on the same day). To celebrate they made some additions to the ending of the original Guild Wars campaign, giving it a real ending with rewards. Last night I decided to check it out and marched my team of miscreants back up to Hell's Precipice.

The team died once, but that's because I wasn't paying attention. It went rather well after that misstep. Ending as it must with an Undead Prince Rurik (dead again), and the Lich Lord with him.




Which took me to the new ending area where you can chat it up with all the NPCs you met along the way. It was a nice touch and really fits with the endings the made for the other campaigns and expansion. Ties a few plot bits up too and the expansion fit a little better into the storyline.



I even got myself a fancy new staff. Funny thing is that after making over half a dozen characters, I realized the only one I really use... and thus the only one I should be getting stuff for is this character, my necromancer. Thing is all the other end game items I've acquired I gave to other characters... so even though she really didn't need a new weapon, she deserves to get this one.



But lest you think I spent my time re-beating the game just for a shiny new stick, my time at Hell's Precipice was well spent with other pursuits too. I capped an Elite (since I'm back doing that now that I finally purchased the skill trainer for my Guild Hall) from Rurik himself, no less. I also mapped what I could and now am proud to say I've hit 99% on the Tyrian Cartographer title. Getting that last 1% is going to drive me insane.



Just for fun, here's a little picture of the Edge of the World that I ran into while messing around the Northern Shiverpeaks the other day.

Preview of GW:EN

Really Quite Ugly

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

The new expansion for Guild Wars, Eye of the North, had a preview over the weekend. Pretty cool. I'm glad that there is more to explore. I really hope they listen to the player community and make changes to the much touted Hall of Monuments... cause it was a bit of a let down.

Here's one of the giant monsters in the new Guild Wars expansion. I really didn't realize how ugly this guy was, until I stopped to snap a picture. What a face... maybe some botox is in order?

Unwaking Waters aka Stupid Me

Unwaking Waters

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

So I was mistaken, it happens more often than I'd like.

Turns out there is a resurrection thingie in the Unwaking Waters area... just the other faction had control of it. Of course this last time when I actually discover this, I ended up not needing it... since I actually took my time and stayed out of trouble. I also learned that I could backtrack into the Luxon areas, meaning I don't have to do the stupid guard the baby turtles mission to get to those Luxon areas.

Got those last 3 Elite Mesmer Skills! Now on to the Ranger skills, methinks.

3 More Mesmer Elites Left

gw933

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

I'm 3 Elite skill caps away from having all the Mesmer elites (I already have all the necromancer elites capped). Unfortunately 2 are on the Ring of Fire Islands, and 1 is in the Unwaking Waters in Cantha. I died on the Ring of Fire mission last night when my team of super smart heroes/henchies agro'd a bunch of drakes who burned us to the ground. Then the power went out (thunderstorm) and after sitting in the dark for a couple minutes decided to put up playing for the night even after the power kicked back on.

I tried the Unwaking Waters area a couple times earlier this week... there's no resurrect locations in that explorable area. That REALLY sucks. That and the guy I'm trying to get is hiding behind a Elementalist boss, a group of Oni, and a bunch of Mobs.

Getting those last Elites won't be that bad, but it'll take some time. Time hasn't been in great abundance lately. Katie demands her share which is significant, but I don't mind giving it to her.

With Super Metroid coming out on Virtual Console next week, I don't Guild Wars will be getting much of my time. Granted that the week following that the Guild Wars Expansion will be on the scene, so I won't be neglecting it for long.

She Lives Again

Gender Flipped Warrior

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Here's an update on my weekend Guild Wars progress (I know no one cares but me).

My elementalist managed to get his last 15 attribute points, which is a major check mark off the to-do list. He also capped an elite skill along the way. Next for him is progressing further in Elona... because I want to by him some Vabbi armor. That is unless the GW:EN ele armor turns out to be really cool (not holding my breath).

Satine, my main necromancer character, capped a few more mesmer elites. She's already got all the necromancer elites and most of the normal necro skills. Figured I'd work through the other profession's elites working through each campaign respectively. That way I can pick up each title along the way. There's still a long way to go.

On a side not I picked up a couple more gold items that pushed Satine's wisdom track almost to the half way point.

The biggest news is I finally deleted the mule monk that did nothing but hold item upgrade components. It took a bit, but I managed to find places for everything she was carrying and then deleted her worthless butt. After freeing up that character slot I decided to make a PvP character, since I've never bothered to keep one handy.

If you remember last April Fool's Day GW played a trick where they flipped the gender of your character. I was very impressed by my big drunken warrior's womanly twin, so much so that I've brought her back from the nebulous void. Behold Grimm Panda's new PvP sister Twin Panda!

Actually the above picture is from the Fool's Day event, but trust me... she looks exactly the same.

Dragon Festival "Demon"

Dragon Festival "Demon"

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Over the weekend Guild Wars held another Dragon Festival. Last year the festival took place as a run up to the release of Nightfall (the last campaign), so they had the festival be invaded by demons. This was as a precursor to all the nastiness to come in the campaign.

Well in the progression of the overall story arc of Guild Wars the Nightfall campaign has been completed so the demons have all gone away (sort of). So this years Dragon Festival was invaded by actors playing "demons" (see the picture) which is kinda a neat trick. Made the little missions and tasks funnier this time around.

Got my new demon mask for my troubles, didn't actually make it to the festival last year so I missed out on last years dragon mask. Had a lot of fun. It's great that ArenaNet continues to provide additional content like this too keep things interesting.

Goodbye Abbadon

Goodbye Abbadon

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

I managed to finish up the last campaign in Guild Wars a little while ago. That clears me up for the new expansion due out at the end of August. There's still plenty to do in the game, but getting through the main storyline was one of the major things I wanted to complete.

It would still have been great if I had bought the first game right when it was released, instead of waiting about a half a year. I didn't even get the next campaign right away either, which also looks foolish in hindsight. Then again I really didn't know I'd get into it so fully, now did I?

Guild Wars Update

gw390

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3.

Guild Wars: Eyes of the North (GWEN) is getting closer. In the build up to the expansion I'm trying to complete Nightfall with my necromancer Satine, who is the only character to beat the other 2 campaigns. With Nightfall complete I'll at least have gone through all campaigns once.

I started a new monk in prophesies with the lofty goal of getting her to level 20 before going post searing. Yup, I don't think that's going to happen. Getting up higher levels is a BIG pain and requires dedication, time, and playing with others (urgh, I don't like being forced to play with others).

So I think I'll shoot for level 10, which is hard enough. My other goal with this new monk is to gather the equipment necessary to have what is called a 55 monk. You do some tricks to get your health as low as possible (55 hitpoints) then use a skill that makes you practically invincible... until some sneaky enemy removes the skill or something.

They made some tweaks recently that makes Factions more fun, at least if you like farming faction points. I should have my warrior in a fancy new set of Kurzick armor pretty soon. I'm planning on making him look a little like Lucas, one of my favorite henchies.

Guild Wars is still tons of fun... when I have time to play it. That would mostly be late at night after the girls go to sleep (wife and daughter).